Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Stock Price Up 1% – What’s Next?

Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) rose 1% during mid-day trading on Monday . The company traded as high as $698.12 and last traded at $696.41. Approximately 8,281,089 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 46% from the average daily volume of 15,444,609 shares. The stock had previously closed at $689.18.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have recently commented on META shares. JMP Securities restated a “market outperform” rating and set a $750.00 price target on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Raymond James reissued a “strong-buy” rating and set a $800.00 target price (up from $725.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Thursday. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price target on Meta Platforms from $675.00 to $715.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Oppenheimer raised their price objective on Meta Platforms from $650.00 to $800.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Scotiabank upped their target price on Meta Platforms from $583.00 to $627.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Thursday. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, thirty-five have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $710.83.

Meta Platforms Trading Up 1.6 %

The company’s 50-day moving average is $613.60 and its 200-day moving average is $567.04. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 2.98 and a current ratio of 2.98. The firm has a market cap of $1.77 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.28, a P/E/G ratio of 1.47 and a beta of 1.20.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $6.75 by $1.27. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 37.91% and a return on equity of 38.17%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $5.33 EPS. On average, research analysts predict that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 25.94 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 27th. Investors of record on Monday, December 16th were issued a $0.50 dividend. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.29%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 16th. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is 8.36%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, COO Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, November 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $562.77, for a total value of $232,424.01. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 19,579 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,018,473.83. This represents a 2.07 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 35,921 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $673.57, for a total value of $24,195,307.97. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 661,804 shares of company stock worth $407,745,741 over the last three months. 13.71% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Meta Platforms

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. AMF Tjanstepension AB grew its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 32.5% in the 3rd quarter. AMF Tjanstepension AB now owns 457,092 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $261,680,000 after purchasing an additional 112,047 shares during the period. Czech National Bank increased its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 6.6% during the third quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 445,052 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $254,766,000 after acquiring an additional 27,453 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 26.6% during the third quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 30,902 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $17,690,000 after acquiring an additional 6,500 shares during the period. Herbst Group LLC boosted its stake in Meta Platforms by 13.4% in the 3rd quarter. Herbst Group LLC now owns 8,437 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $4,830,000 after purchasing an additional 999 shares during the period. Finally, WealthBridge Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 15.9% in the 3rd quarter. WealthBridge Capital Management LLC now owns 4,023 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $2,303,000 after purchasing an additional 552 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

About Meta Platforms

Meta Platforms, Inc engages in the development of products that enable people to connect and share with friends and family through mobile devices, personal computers, virtual reality headsets, and wearables worldwide. It operates in two segments, Family of Apps and Reality Labs. The Family of Apps segment offers Facebook, which enables people to share, discuss, discover, and connect with interests; Instagram, a community for sharing photos, videos, and private messages, as well as feed, stories, reels, video, live, and shops; Messenger, a messaging application for people to connect with friends, family, communities, and businesses across platforms and devices through text, audio, and video calls; and WhatsApp, a messaging application that is used by people and businesses to communicate and transact privately.